GarageSale 8 Public Beta

GarageSale
1

Dear GarageSale Users,

Today we are releasing GarageSale 8 as a public beta for you to test. GarageSale 8 introduces many new major features, significant performance improvements and the new “Pro” subscription service. Please see below for all details.

You can download the beta version here:

https://downloads.iwascoding.com/downloads/GarageSale_8.0b62.dmg

System Requirements

  • GarageSale 8 requires OS X 10.12 or later

What’s new in GarageSale 8

Please find an overview over the most important changes in this chapter:
New in GarageSale 8

  • drastic performance improvements for search, smart groups, reports, updating data from eBay
  • completely reworked design templates
  • database synching between Macs, more info available here
  • popovers can be detached and retain their position and size between sessions
  • maximum image size when using GarageSale’s image hosting is now 1600x1200
  • improved UI feedback when using multiple connections and launch interval options
  • bulk “search and replace”
  • adds support for ‘Dark Mode’ appearance on macOS 10.14 Mojave
  • added ‘days Remaining’ smart group rule to the listing section
  • added warning about upcoming GTC requirement for fixed price listings
  • revised selection behaviour, so items selected in the outline view get immediately selected in the overview (middle area of the window)
  • added a popup to the listing overview for quickly filtering items by state
  • colors for the listing state icons can be configured via General preferences
  • added option to launch control window for using multiple connections when communicating with eBay
  • users can print customisable packing slips and shipping labels from eBay orders
  • added minimum listing interval option to launch control window
  • implemented a work-around for broken drag and drop from Apple’s Photos application
  • size of thumbnail images can be changed in image overview mode and listing editor mode
  • when running macOS 10.13, a faster panel is used for importing images from Apple’s Photos app
  • Improved AppleScript
    • Added values for order transactions
    • Can now upload tracking number via AppleScript
  • Smart Groups can be sorted
  • more filter and table view options in My eBay import panel
    • filter by auction/BIN
    • added column sku and end date
  • support for file images in XML import
  • can set title/category from catalog product (product search popover)
  • added preference to show buyer’s eBay account name in orders outline view
  • users can manually share started listings via FaceBook/Twitter
  • added preference to display colored background in listing mode outline view
  • added “Create Invoice with GrandTotal” command
  • when using no design, updated HTML code used for displaying your images below your description
  • started working on new “Pull changes from eBay”, which let’s you import specific changes you made to your listings on eBay back into GarageSale (not done yet)
  • improvements to AppleScript execution speed
  • when exporting multi-item orders to GrandTotal for invoicing, the shipping cost should be correct
  • shipping service table column in shipping options panel is resizable
  • added advanced eBay preference to specify the attributes panel’s behaviour when specifics are empty (insert suggested, insert required, insert no attributes)
  • added support for ‘Continuity Camera’ feature on macOS 10.14 Mojave
  • added menu commands to cycle focus between different parts of the main window
  • shows buyer phone number to order inspector
  • order section: buyer name and address are now a single field for easy copying
  • added “Show Main window” menu command in case you accidentally closed it
  • shows number of verified listings in Launch Control window
  • added AppleScript command (and example script) to remove images from listings
  • when adding new groups, name fields in outline view get selected for editing
  • added advanced eBay preference setting to only perform local verification in LaunchControl window (and prevent verification with eBay)
  • error message for eBay error 240 shows additional error reason, if sent by eBay
  • eBay Message templates: fixed [[totalPrice]] and [[shippingCost]] macros to include billing shipping cost instead of the private “actual shipping” cost field
  • re-added support for the ‘Private Listing’ flag
  • removed outdated buyer requirements no longer supported by the eBay API
  • added “Move Selected Items to” command to “Edit” and outline view context menu
  • user can choose between multiple default footer layouts in Preferences panel
  • GarageSale performs certain eBay data update operation (GetSellerList) on 4 concurrent connections
  • ‘Activity Viewer’ window opens automatically on startup, if it was left open before
  • moved SKU field to first tab of Listings inspector
  • changed the default smart group behaviour when searching in text fields to require the exact search string, no more double-quotes required to activate that special mode.

Synching

If you work with GarageSale on severals Macs you might find the new Synching feature helpful. Once enabled your GarageSale database will be synched between your Macs.

Please refer to this document for more information about how synching works in GarageSale 8.

A ‘Synching’ help section with images is already available, too: Synching Overview

Pricing

eBay’s strategy has changed a lot since we first introduced GarageSale in 2004. There are now less private sellers on eBay, which were GarageSale’s original target audience. At the same time the share of professional and semi-professional seller went up.

As a result, we have now less, but more demanding GarageSale users. To keep GarageSale a viable business, we are introducing a dual license model with GarageSale 8:

If you are listing less than 50 items on eBay per month and don’t need the ‘Synching’ feature, you can purchase or upgrade to GarageSale 8 for a one time fee of $39.99 (new license) or $19.99 (upgrade fee). (The upgrade will be free if you purchased your GarageSale 7 license after April 1st, 2018.

If you are listing more than 50 items per month, you’ll need a GarageSale Pro subscription for $14.99/month or $149.99/year, which includes these benefits:

GarageSale Pro benefits:

  • Free major upgrades
  • Unlimited listing starts
  • Database Synching between Macs
  • Use GarageSale’s image service for GTC listings

If you sign up for the GarageSale Pro subscription during the beta phase, we will credit you the time you paid during the alpha/beta phase once the final version of GarageSale gets released.

Using GarageSale 8 and GarageSale 7 at the same time

GarageSale 8 uses it’s own library under Library/Containers/com.iwascoding.garagesale8. Upon first start it will create a copy of your current GS7 (or GS 6) database and save it in it’s new format. Depending on the size of your database, this conversion process can take several minutes.

Once the initial GS 8 database is created, edits you make in either GS7 or GS8 will not appear in the other version. You can share listings between versions using the Export/Import commands, as the export file format remains unchanged.

Helpful Links

5

I just D/L GarageSale 8 beta and I already have a problem. After starting up 8 I saw this updating index progress bar. My problem is it hasn’t moved in approximately 10 minutes. What should I do?

After quiting the program this error message appeared.

54%20PM

6

Does this mean that GS 8 will not work if I list 51 items in one month? Or that it’s advised?

7

I am sure this topic will come up anyway very soon, so let me be the one to start it:

I am a happy GarageSale user since 2006. I use it daily, and it has helped me a lot to build and successfully run a commercial business focused on eBay. So, I am definitely right there in the target group you mention.

I also have a background in software development, so I fully understand your needs, the effort it requires to not only build, but support a piece of software and continuous releases, and that you need a somewhat predictable way of income to secure further development.

I am, like many others, not a big fan of software subscription, though. I understand and accept that it can make sense in certain scenarios, but I find it a matter of respect towards clients to offer it as a choice. The moment I feel blackmailed into a subscription, I am out… and my understanding is that I am not alone with this attitude.

Let me repeat: I do understand your needs to change to a more predictable income. Or higher income per license, especially from commercial users. And I would be more than happy to support future development as well as current support by buying a Pro license that is priced higher than the basic or current version of GS, if you give me that choice. Right now, all you offer is: license, but only up to 50 listings per month. That wouldn’t work for me (I am above that level). Or, buy the subscription… which I don’t want. That’s why I feel blackmailed. A piece of software, that I use daily, and love to use, suddenly no longer offers me a license model to feel comfortable with.

That’s why I am an ex-Adobe user, an ex-Ulysses user, an ex-TextExpander user and likely an ex-1Password user soon. I am still a CaptureOne user and an Office 365 subscriber, because those two offer me a choice (and regarding MS Office the subscription made sense in my case… I am not a subscription hater per se).

Please don’t make me an ex-GarageSale user and reconsider your licensing options. Personally, I’d love to see a Pro version that can be licensed in the ‘traditional’ way, even if it comes with restrictions or limitations compared to the Pro subscription. I, personally, wouldn’t expect free upgrades with it, or syncing, because I understand that this creates continuous costs on your side to run the additional servers. But then please load the costs for that onto the clients that actually want and use the service.

1 Like
8

GarageSale 8 will work as usual, but unless you sign up for GarageSale Pro, it will bare you from starting another listing if you have already listed 50 items on your eBay account within the last month.

9

We know that software subscriptions are highly controversial, that’s why we keep offering the regular flat-fee license for low-volume sellers.

But to keep developing GarageSale a viable business for us, we need to at least cover our costs for adaptation of eBay changes and user support. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible with GarageSale’s traditional licensing scheme anymore.

If you are selling more than 50 items are month, we believe $15/month aren’t too much to ask for, especially compared to what other third-part eBay services are charging.

Also, it’s perfectly fine to only sign up for GarageSale Pro for the months you are listing more than 50 items, and stay on the regular license for low-volume months.

We know that we cannot make everyone happy, and if you feel that the new licensing options aren’t for you, we’d be sorry to see you go.

10

Hi motmin,

can you please give this a try?:

  1. Locate and remove your (incomplete) GarageSale8 database folder:
    You can simply do this by selecting “Go To” > “Go To Folder…” from the Finder menu bar. Then enter the following address there:

~/Library/Containers/

In that directory you should find a folder called “com.iwascoding.garagesale8” which is the GarageSale8 database. Put that folder into the trash.

  1. If done, start GarageSale 8 once again. Important: Please be patient and give it enough time to import your previous GarageSale database and to update the index.

Hope this helps,
Kristian

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Thanks for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately, that’s not what I was hoping to hear from you. And it seems you are not open to or misread my suggestions.

A subscription as the only choice is no option for me. I am listing more than 50 items every month, so I would be forced to pay monthly. If this is the only thing you are willing to offer, then I am unfortunately no longer a happy user in the future. Which is a pity, because I just downloaded and installed the beta of GS8 and love the speed improvements and the black mode.

Why is it not an option for you to offer a higher priced Pro license without subscription? From a developers persepctive, it should be easy and not require much work.

15$ a month is 180$ a year. Every year. I understand that a single payment of 19.99 every few years there is a major upgrade doesn’t cover your costs, but going from there to 180$/year is a bit steep, don’t you think? Plus, given that you do not offer those who actually rely on your software (and happily use it and definitely want to continue to do so) any other option than this huge increase and the obligation to accept a licensing model that you describe yourself as highly controversial is, honestly, a slap in the face. Sorry if I am that direct.

You turn a possible win-win situation, where you would win additional income from higher priced licensed and your professional clients would win new features and continue to have a great product and a great team supporting it, into a lose-lose situation, where you lose those clients and they lose the perfect solution they have been using daily for over a long period of time. I am sure I am not the only one with that issue.

I’d love to provide input on the GS8 beta, because I’d love to use it, the performance improvements alone would make it a worthwhile upgrade for me. But if I’m forced into a subscription model, then I will probably better (though unhappily) invest the time into looking for alternatives instead.

4 Likes
12

Hello Kristian,

I followed your instructions. When I opened the new version of GS 8 here’s the message that popped up. And when I clicked ok the program quit.

Thank you,
Steve
steve@motorsportsminiatures.com

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Hi Steve,

Can you send us your GarageSale 7 library, so we can try to find out what’s causing the problems? Here is what to do:

  1. In GarageSale 7, choose “Help” menu > “Show Library Folder”

  2. With the library folder open, quit GarageSale 7

  3. Compress the directory “GarageSale.leveldb” into a .zip archive by right-clicking it

  4. Upload the zip file to our DropBox by using this Upload-Link:
    Dropbox

Thank you,
Kristian

14

Hello Kristian,

File uplaoded.

Thank you,
Steve
steve@motorsportsminiatures.com

15

GarageSale 8 Pricing. I thought about this for quite a while…

Typically, I am old-school buy-it-own-it for software. Being a Macintosh Software engineer for nearly 30 years. Monthly subscriptions are now becoming the new normal, even Quicken is doing it.

BUT… The value of GarageSale to me is FAR beyond the price I have paid for it. I use this software all day, every day.

FOR ME… The benefits I receive from this software FAR exceed and outweigh the new $14.99 per month cost. And if you sign up for a year, it is a one-time payment of $149.99/year.

I simply could not run my eBay business and make my living/income without it!!!

This equates to less than 1 penny/cent per listing per month!

I pay much more than that for eBay listing fees (10 cents per listing), eBay final value fees ($$$ per item), eBay Store (5 cents per item), PayPal fees ($ per item), USPS Postage fees ($$$ per item), shipping labels (3 cents per item), shipping envelopes (10-20 cents per item), empty boxes (50-100 cents per item), bubble wrap, foam peanuts, rubber bands, packing tape, printer paper (1 cent per item), printer ink ($30 per month!), etc, etc, etc…

And, my eBay store is $60 per month… In the Grand Scheme of Things (Total Picture) GarageSale is a very small cost!

I have paid for and been happily using the GarageSale v8 Beta for over a year, and simply can not imagine going back to v7…

I would be very happy to pay more, $25-$30 per month, maybe even $50 per month given the benefits!

Neal

Neal Trautman
Macintosh Software Engineer since December 1983
co-inventor of U.S. Software Patent #5,241,625
ex-Lead Software Engineer for Netopia Timbuktu Remote Control product for 17 years…

2 Likes
16

I have been using Garage sale for several years now. I am a private seller, not a professional store. I am using garage sale to sell off my years worth of collections and household goods as I downsize my home. To that end I upload much more than the 50 items you are allowing for the basic upgrade.
Some of the improvements to functionality of the program would be nice got have and I would gladly upgrade for them but the fact that I could only upload 50 items makes the upgrade unacceptable.
The subscription service features that “cost you money” to run - the syncing and the image service - are useless to me. I only use one Mac and I don’t use an image server.
I would be paying a large amount of money for features that I don’t use.

I am more than willing to pay for major upgrades as I have done in the past.

While I know that subscription services are becoming more popular I resent being forced into buying one. More importantly, I don’t sell enough on eBay for it to makes any sense!

You offer me 2 options 1. A license that only allows 50 listings a month and 2. A subscription that gives you everything (total overkill for me) I would like you to offer an in-between version. A Pro license (upgrade) that is a one time cost without the upgrades and the syncing and the image server (all the things that create on-going costs for you).
Until then I will stay with GarageSale 7.

4 Likes
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Thank you, ilja. It’s certainly a reasonable price. I just hate subscribing to anything!

I’ll be subscribing, however. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Wondering if there was any word on GarageSale being a third party lister for other venues, especially ETSY. This was talked about, but haven’t heard much in a while as synching seems to be the feature that has taken precedence. I sell one of a kind vintage stuff, and sell across different sites, and this is the feature I ( and hopefully others as well) would like to see. Is this still on the “to do” list? Once you go to a subscription plan, I have to weigh paying more (then GS) for stuff I need versus paying more (then I’m paying now) for features I don’t use. Just another angle…

Pete

2 Likes
19

I don’t know about this at this moment, because I am going to start selling again @ eBay, tired of Amazon Mexico and their bugs in their system

Yes they are that is why users are looking for alternatives
Adobe? now Affinity for me
Office 365 who cares? LibreOffice will do the same job

I will accept to pay more money for a mayor Upgrade

Like Cookie did

cookie

The software subscriptions model is not an option for me
as @Freedolin wrote

If you don’t want to reconsider it is OK, I am out that simple, nothing broke here
I never bother you asking to add to GS Servicio Postal Mexicano

https://www.correosdemexico.gob.mx/SSLServicios/SeguimientoEnvio/Seguimiento.aspx

This is my honest opinion following the community guidelines “Be kind to your fellow community members” and " Constructive criticism is welcome, but criticize ideas , not people"

Thanks for your time for read me

Best Regard
jedi

20

That’s something I would like to see too! :slight_smile: